GROWERS heard about the latest developments at monitor farmer David Blacker’s holding near York at a meeting organised by AHDB Cereals and Oilseeds.

He has made the improvement of soil health one of the main priorities at Church Farm, Shipton. This had resulted in a move away from the traditional min-till/ploughing system, replacing it with the use of a Mzuri PRO-TIL 4T strip tillage drill.

The single-pass technique limits cultivation to a targeted area, leaving the previous crop residue undisturbed between the strips. The aim is to encourage the retention of soil moisture and to enhance soil structure and fertility.

Mr Blacker, who became a monitor farmer for the AHDB last autumn and trades as N Blacker and Son, explained the reasons for the decision.

He said: "We seem to be getting more extreme weather patterns and compaction and flooding was becoming a serious problem. I was spending £40-£65 an acre cultivating the fields and establishing a crop which did not always achieve good results or targeted yields.

"By contrast, the strip-till machine only costs £25/acre and minimises the possibility of compaction. Hopefully, the sight of crops struggling to survive in water-logged fields due to over-cultivation will become a thing of the past."

After a series of financial calculations, barley was dropped from the rotation as it was not financially worthwhile. The profitability of second wheats had also been disappointing over the past few seasons.

He said the cost analysis had been interesting, revealing that spring beans must achieve a yield of one tonne/acre, in order to justify their inclusion in the rotation.